Shivani Sibal’s debut novel neatly slices open class equations within Delhi’s power elite

A member of the domestic staff in my house muttered a thickly accented “sorry”, a word she had picked up from me, when I saw her sit on one of the dining chairs. I shrugged, not knowing what to say. When I was twelve, I didn’t realise why she was apologising. In her debut novel Equations, Shivani Sibal provides the contours of the world that mandates this apology.

Although playmates Aahan Sikand and Rajesh Kumar occupy the same space, Sikand House, they lead different lives. The mansion co-opts the world that surrenders to the talons of class. It preys on their friendship. An older Rajesh, the son of the Sikand family’s driver Laxman, who used to be “amongst the first to do the Laxmi puja”, spatially demotes himself to “his appropriate spot at the rear of the gathering, behind the family and senior servants.”

Upstairs, downstairs

The third-person perspective drives Sibal’s nonlinear prose, which lets several characters’ points of view steer the story. Each character exposes the realities of the other that they wouldn’t admit themselves.

Aahan’s wife Parul’s perspective reveals him as an abuser who slaps her on the night of their engagement for talking to her ex. A coddling mother, a semi-absent father, and a silver spoon…

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